The brewing of beer is an ancient art. Ancient records suggest that malting and fermentation of cereals to produce "beer" commenced between about 2000 B.C. and 3000 in Mesopotamia. The basic ingredients for beer have remained unchanged over the centuries: barley, malt, water, hops and yeast. The process for brewing beer consists essentially of the following steps:
Malting barley by germination. The purpose of malting is to bring forth enzymes that break down starch and proteins to less complex water-soluble compounds, i.e. amino acids, fermentable sugars and small peptides;
Crushing the malted barley to create a "grist"; PA1 Adding water to the grist to create a mash; PA1 Separating the resulting aqueous extract, known as the "wort" which is rich in fermentable sugars and other nutrients; PA1 Boiling the wort with hops to add flavors and to stop enzymatic action; PA1 Cooling and clarifying the wort; PA1 Fermenting the wort with yeast to convert glucose to ethanol and carbon dioxide ("primary fermentation") to produce the "green" or "young" beer; PA1 Maturing or "lagering" the fermented green or young beer, generally by means of "secondary fermentation", again using yeast; PA1 Filtering, pasteurizing and packaging the beer.
A generally known practice is to replace malted barley with a so called brewing adjunct, or use such an adjunct in addition to malt as a beer raw material. Suitable brewing adjuncts include maize, rice, sugar and various syrups. A brewing adjunct used in the production of a wort, such as maize, is usually crushed and a mash formed separately from the malt mash by adding enzymes (The Practical Brewer 1977, ed. H. M. Broderick). Prehydrolyzed products can be mixed with the malt mash, and syrups can be added to the wort at the time the wort is boiled as described above. The use of brewing adjuncts needs to be carefully controlled in order to produce beer of acceptable taste and color. The use of adjuncts made from maize, rice and other grains expands the brewing ingredients beyond the traditional ones listed above; this is not possible in countries like Germany, where the Beer Purity Laws enacted in 1516 (the "Reinveitssehot") which limit brewing ingredients to barley malt, water, hops and yeast, are still followed.
Surprisingly, it has now been discovered that malt can be partially replaced with a starch-containing mixture obtained as a secondary fraction from a barley starch process, while the "mashing" water is partially replaced with the water contained in the mixture. The pH of the starch-containing mixture is low, so the addition of acid at the mashing step (often done) is not necessary. Malt usually contains an excess of amylolytic enzymes, so up to 30% of the malt can be replaced with a starch fraction at the mashing step without the need to add enzymes. If necessary, gluconase or cellulase enzymes can be added to the mash for improved filterability.
It is also possible to produce a barley syrup from a starch-containing mixture obtained as a secondary fraction from a barley-starch process, and use the syrup to replace malt. The production of a syrup is carried out by liquefying, saccharifying, filtration and concentration procedures well known in the art. Other concentrated forms of a starch containing mixture can also be used. The resultant barley syrup can also be used as raw material in a brewing process. An advantage of barley syrup is that it has good storage properties and can be added to the wort at the beginning of the fermentation step. This increases the capacity of the brewery and makes it easy to increase the concentration of the wort in a so called high gravity process. Other forms of concentrated starch containing mixture derived from barley could also be used to substitute for malt in the brewing process.